The field of electrosurgery includes a number of loosely related surgical techniques which have in common the application of electrical energy to modify the structure or integrity of patient tissue. Electrosurgical procedures usually operate through the application of very high frequency currents to cut or ablate tissue structures, where the operation can be monopolar or bipolar. Monopolar techniques rely on external grounding of the patient, where the surgical device defines only a single electrode pole. Bipolar devices comprise both electrodes for the application of current between their surfaces.
Electrosurgical procedures and techniques are particularly advantageous since they generally reduce patient bleeding and trauma associated with cutting operations. Current electrosurgical device and procedures, however, suffer from a number of disadvantages. For example, monopolar devices generally direct electric current along a defined path from the exposed or active electrode through the patient's body to the return electrode, which is externally attached to a suitable location on the patient. This creates the potential danger that the electric current will flow through undefined paths in the patient's body, thereby increasing the risk of unwanted electrical stimulation to portions of the patient's body. In addition, since the defined path through the patient's body has a relatively high impedance (because of the large distance or resistivity of the patient's body), large voltage differences must typically be applied between the return and active electrodes in order to generate a current suitable for ablation or cutting of the target tissue. This current, however, may inadvertently flow along body paths having less impedance than the defined electrical path, which will substantially increase the current flowing through these paths, possibly causing damage to or destroying tissue along and surrounding this pathway.
Bipolar electrosurgical devices have an inherent advantage over monopolar devices because the return current path does not flow through the patient. In bipolar electrosurgical devices, both the active and return electrode are typically exposed so that they may both contact tissue, thereby providing a return current path from the active to the return electrode through the tissue. One drawback with this configuration, however, is that the return electrode may cause tissue desiccation or destruction at its contact point with the patient's tissue. In addition, the active and return electrodes are typically positioned close together to ensure that the return current flows directly from the active to the return electrode. The close proximity of these electrodes generates the danger that the current will short across the electrodes, possibly impairing the electrical control system and/or damaging or destroying surrounding tissue.
The use of electrosurgical procedures (both monopolar and bipolar) in electrically conductive environments can be further problematic. For example, many arthroscopic procedures require flushing of the region to be treated with isotonic saline (also referred to as normal saline), both to maintain an isotonic environment and to keep the field of viewing clear. The presence of saline, which is a highly conductive electrolyte, can also cause shorting of the electrosurgical electrode in both monopolar and bipolar modes. Such shorting causes unnecessary heating in the treatment environment and can further cause non-specific tissue destruction.
Many surgical procedures, such as oral, laparoscopic and open surgical procedures, are not performed with the target tissue submerged under an irrigant. In laparoscopic procedures, such as the resection of the gall bladder from the liver, for example, the abdominal cavity is pressurized with carbon dioxide (pneumoperitoneum) to provide working space for the instruments and to improve the surgeon's visibility of the surgical site. Other procedures, such as the ablation of muscle or gingiva tissue in the mouth, the ablation and necrosis of diseased tissue, or the ablation of epidermal tissue, are also typically performed in a “dry” environment or field (i.e., not submerged under an electrically conducting irrigant).
Present electrosurgical techniques used for tissue ablation also suffer from an inability to control the depth of necrosis in the tissue being treated. Most electrosurgical devices rely on creation of an electric arc between the treating electrode and the tissue being cut or ablated to cause the desired localized heating. Such arcs, however, often create very high temperatures causing a depth of necrosis greater than 500 μm, frequently greater than 800 μm, and sometimes as great as 1700 μm. The inability to control such depth of necrosis is a significant disadvantage in using electrosurgical techniques for tissue ablation, particularly in arthroscopic procedures for ablating and/or reshaping fibrocartilage, articular cartilage, meniscal tissue, and the like.
In an effort to overcome at least some of these limitations of electrosurgery, laser apparatus have been developed for use in arthroscopic and other procedures. Lasers do not suffer from electrical shorting in conductive environments, and certain types of lasers allow for very controlled cutting with limited depth of necrosis. Despite these advantages, laser devices suffer from their own set of deficiencies. In the first place, laser equipment can be very expensive because of the costs associated with the laser light sources. Moreover, those lasers which permit acceptable depths of necrosis (such as eximer lasers, erbium:YAG lasers, and the like) provide a very low volumetric ablation rate, which is a particular disadvantage in cutting and ablation of fibrocartilage, articular cartilage, and meniscal tissue. The holmium:YAG and Nd:YAG lasers provide much higher volumetric ablation rates, but are much less able to control depth of necrosis than are the slower laser devices. The CO2 lasers provide high rate of ablation and low depth of tissue necrosis, but cannot operate in a liquid-filled cavity.
For these and other reasons, improved systems and methods are desired for the electrosurgical ablation and cutting of tissue. These systems and methods should be capable of selectively cutting and ablating tissue and other body structures in electrically conductive environments, such as regions filled with blood or irrigated with electrically conductive solutions, such as isotonic saline, and in relatively dry environments, such as those encountered in oral, dermatological, laparoscopic, thoracosopic and open surgical procedures. Such apparatus and methods should be able to perform cutting and ablation of tissues, while limiting the depth of necrosis and limiting the damage to tissue adjacent to the treatment site.
The assignee of the present invention developed Coblation® technology. Coblation® technology involves the application of a high frequency voltage difference between one or more active electrode(s) and one or more return electrode(s) to develop high electric field intensities in the vicinity of the target tissue in order to treat said tissue. The high electric field intensities may be generated by applying a high frequency voltage that is sufficient to vaporize an electrically conductive fluid over at least a portion of the active electrode(s) in the region between the tip of the active electrode(s) and the target tissue. The electrically conductive fluid may be a liquid or gas, such as isotonic saline, blood, extracellular or intracellular fluid, delivered to, or already present at, the target site, or a viscous fluid, such as a gel, applied to the target site.
The electrosurgical devices described above may incorporate a suction lumen to carry away blood, tissue or other material from the treatment site. Presently available devices that utilize suction typically access vacuum pressure from a surgical vacuum source that is self-regulated to maintain a pre-set vacuum pressure. One problem associated with such systems is that the flow of liquid, gas and/or tissue particles in the vicinity of the treatment end of device may negatively affect the efficacy of such electrosurgical devices.